Pakistan

Access to good-quality healthcare, including treatment for communicable diseases and lifesaving obstetric and neonatal services, remains a significant challenge for many people in Pakistan.

Living in isolated communities in the mountains between Pakistan and Afghanistan and in areas affected by conflict, Afghan refugees and residents of urban slums are some of the vulnerable groups in desperate need of medical assistance. Healthcare for women and children is a particular concern: women regularly die from preventable complications during pregnancy, neonatal care is inaccessible for many, and one in ten children dies before their fifth birthday. MSF continues to support provincial and district health authorities in responding to some of the most urgent needs. MSF activities in Pakistan are funded solely by donations from individuals, with no institutional or government contributions.

Mother and child health in Balochistan

Government-funded inpatient paediatric care in Balochistan’s capital, Quetta, is insufficient to meet the population’s needs and many people cannot afford private clinic fees. In 2011, MSF opened the 67-bed Quetta paediatric hospital, housing a neonatal ward, an inpatient therapeutic feeding centre for children with complicated malnutrition, and general and isolation wards. Some 1,300 patients were admitted in 2015 and more than 1,900 severely malnourished children received treatment. Over 4,000 individual and group mental health consultations were held in 2015.

In Kuchlak, 20 kilometres north of Quetta, MSF runs a mother and child health centre offering outpatient treatment, 24-hour emergency obstetrics, and nutritional support for children under the age of five. More than 9,100 children were vaccinated against childhood diseases in 2015. In Kuchlak and Benazir Bhutto hospital in old Marriabad town, MSF also treated over 1,700 patients for cutaneous leishmaniasis, a disfiguring and debilitating parasitic disease transmitted by sandflies.

On the Afghan border, at Qila Abdullah district headquarters hospital in Chaman, MSF works with the health authorities, offering free healthcare to local residents, Afghan refugees and people who cross the border seeking medical assistance. Services focusing on women and children include reproductive, neonatal and paediatric healthcare. Teams carried out 10,900 antenatal consultations and assisted 4,400 births in 2015. There is also an emergency room for trauma cases, where staff attended to over 5,800 patients this year. More than 1,500 severely malnourished children under the age of five were treated in the nutrition programme and 8,200 children received essential vaccinations. Through health education sessions, MSF teams highlight the need to seek timely medical assistance, especially during pregnancy. MSF also supervises the women’s outpatient department, which is managed by government staff.

In Dera Murad Jamali, in eastern Balochistan, MSF continues to support the inpatient therapeutic feeding centre for children with complicated malnutrition, and the general paediatric and neonatal wards at the district headquarters hospital. More than 8,000 severely malnourished children received treatment in the feeding programme in 2015.